Category Archives: Windows Phone

MobileViews Podcast 379:Reminiscing 25 years of Windows CE/Mobile/Phone with Jason Dunn


Jon Westfall was unavailable for this podcast. Fortunately, our mutual friend Jason Dunn was available as a guest co-host to reminisce about Windows CE/Mobile/Phone as it nears its 25th launch anniversary (November 1996).

Unfortunately, something weird happened during the recording process, however. The Audio HiJack audio-flow template that I’ve used to record hundreds of previous podcasts only recorded what Jason said. The good news is that I mostly asked questions and provided a few discussion prompts. Moreover, Jason is an excellent extemporaneous speaker. So, you can guess what I said. I removed the blank audio spaces (silences) during the segments I spoke.

Way back in Nov. 2010, Jason and I discussed the then new Windows Phone 7 which made a clean break from Microsoft’s older mobile devices and didn’t maintain app compatibility with Windows Mobile 6. Today, we’re looking back even further to Windows CE 1.0 as well as doing a catch-up conversation since his last visit to the podcast in October 2016!

Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

MobileViews Podcast 122

Jon Westfall and I (Todd Ogasawara) take a look back on Microsoft’s ultra-mobile strategy since 1996 in light of its recent announcement that it will write down $7.6 billion in assets related to its purchase of Nokia’s smartphone business and lay off an additional 7,800 employees (most of whom came to Microsoft from Nokia). Ref: Microsoft

You can find more details and my recollections of Microsoft’s mobile strategy since 1996 in this article I wrote for Extreme Tech: Microsoft Windows Phone: A 20-year retrospective of a meandering mobile strategy

We also briefly discuss Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 10166 released on June 9 and my initial impressions of joining the smartwatch club by buying a Moto 360.

MobileViews Podcast 69: Life after Windows Phone, Microsoft Project Siena, credit card security

Todd Ogasawara and his old friend and special guest, Jon Westfall, talk about their move from Windows Mobile/Phone to other mobile platforms, Microsoft Project Siena for Windows 8.1, and credit card security (COIN, Loop).

Microsoft HelpBridge for Android, iOS, Windows Phone: Connect quickly after a disaster

Microsoft released free apps for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone to request help or offer help (in a variety of ways).

Download a Lifeline: New Disaster Response App Launches

The HelpBridge mobile application simplifies the process of notifying loved ones by simultaneously sending an e-mail and SMS to the communities you select & posting a message to your Facebook wall. You can even include your GPS coordinates so that message recipients will know where you are and the circumstances surrounding you.

The apps are named HelpBridge.

New Microsoft PhotoSynth for Windows Phone app incompatible with 1st gen Windows Phones

The first Windows Phone devices released in the fall of 2010 had hardware limitations imposed by Microsoft. Thus, the entire first generation of devices lacked components that were common even back then. Among the hardware missing from the reference design and the devices based on it is a gyroscope. This component has become increasingly important in games and motion based activities. Microsoft’s design shortsightedness has come back to bite it less than two years after the first Windows Phone devices were released. Its own recently released PhotoSynth panoramic camera app for Windows Phone (first released for the iPhone) won’t work correctly with the entire first generation of Windows Phone devices.

Gee… Thanks, Microsoft, for not future proofing your smartphones! 🙁